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On October 1, Katharine Weymouth was replaced as publisher of The Washington Post by Fred Ryan. This is one of the bigger changes by the new owner, Jeff Bezos.

The Washington Post recently broke the story that Governor McAuliffe’s top aid offered then Senator Phil Puckett a job to stay in the Senate. This embarrasses the Governor and likely ends a Federal investigation of Republicans accused of the same thing.

The Washington Post recently broke the story of a close White House connection to the Secret Service scandal with Columbian personal services. The White House covered this up to for political reasons.

Are things are really changing at the Post? I don’t have a problem with The Washington Post covering Republicans that mess up, but it seems that they are covering more Democrat foibles then they did before. Or do I just have wishful thinking?

I kid you not. In today’s Washington Post, their lead editorial is about the millions of people who are now receiving notices from their insurance companies that their health insurance plans are being cancelled and how that is somehow a good thing.

Some Americans are starting to get ominous-sounding letters about their health-care coverage. Insurance provider Florida Blue, for example, is canceling 300,000 bare-bones insurance plans that aren’t up to the Affordable Care Act’s standards. Customers can transition onto better quality — but more expensive — plans.

Apparently, the Post thinks that people being forced to purchase more expensive plans with much higher deductibles is a positive. Never mind that as consumers they might want to keep a more bare-bones plan that they liked and didn’t have to pay as much for. Not everyone wants or needs what the Post says are “better quality” plans, so why should they be compelled to pay for them? If they wanted and can afford such plans, there is nothing stopping them from getting them now.

Leave it to the Washington Post to think that they (and government bureaucrats) know what is better for you than you do yourself.

That may as well have been the headline of today’s Washington Post endorsement of Terry McAuliffe for Virginia Governor. They basically took their template from four years ago when they endorsed Creigh Deeds and replaced Bob McDonnell’s name with Ken Cuccinelli’s while leaving in things about how mean and divisive and partisan the Republican is and that the GOP nominee is only giving recent lip service to the economy and jobs. Never mind that there is almost nothing specific they can say about McAuliffe other than he supports the key legislative accomplishment of Bob McDonnell who was supposed to have been a mean, divisive and partisan governor.

I’m not even going to link to the WashPo endorsement because, frankly, it would be a waste of your time to read it. What is more interesting is reading their 2009 endorsement of Deeds:

Based on his 14-year record as a lawmaker — a record dominated by his focus on incendiary wedge issues — we worry that Mr. McDonnell’s Virginia would be one where abortion rights would be curtailed; where homosexuals would be treated as second-class citizens; where information about birth control would be hidden; and where the line between church and state could get awfully porous. That is a prescription for yesterday’s Virginia, not tomorrow’s.

. . .

Mr. McDonnell also has claimed he would be more effective at creating jobs. Yet while Mr. McDonnell has been an activist public servant, he has no significant record, either as a lawmaker or as attorney general, of promoting policies to encourage job growth.

So, in its quadrennial ritual, the WashPo once again proclaims that the sky is falling and certain doom awaits Virginia if voters fail to elect the Democrat candidate for Governor. Maybe its time for the Post’s new owner Jeff Bezos to can Chicken Little as their editorial page writer.

In any election year, you get dirty pool and negative attacks. It’s not right, and it turns people off from politics in general, but this is what we have to deal with.

EW Jackson’s amazing win at the RPV Convention on Saturday was inspired, and he has strived for two years to unite and expand the party behind core liberty principles.

It took the Virginia Dems all of about 3 minutes to show us what THEY are all about. Keep in mind, this is supposedly the party of civil rights and who talk a good game to black folks when it’s election time.

First, State Sen. Ralph Northam:

“I know it’s hard to believe that’s even possible. E.W. Jaickson (sic) is the most extreme tea party candidate to ever run on a major party ticket for statewide office in Virginia.”

“The Cuccinelli/Jackson ticket would prevent Medicaid expansion and enforce the medically irrelevant TRAP regulations that will shut down women’s health clinics across the Commonwealth.”

(note here that Northam couldn’t even be bothered to spell EW’s last name correctly. And that he apparently wants abortion clinics to be unsanitary, unregulated, and to basically to give monsters like Kermit Gosnell a free pass.)

Then, Aneesh Chopra:

“Jackson was selected after 5 rounds of voting by some 8,000 convention attendees. The fact that so few people attended the convention says a lot about how inviting the Republican Party in Virginia is right now. I know that come November, the voters of Virginia will reject Jackson and his extreme agenda.”

(Aneesh also couldn’t be bothered to get his facts right; there were four rounds of voting, not five. More on him later)

The aptly named Sen. Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax):

Saslaw decried the past “crazy” statements that Jackson has made says and a laundry list of past troublesome financial deals will cause the nominee to withdraw. “The media will be following him around and all this will come out,” Saslaw said. “He called Planned Parenthood a bigger affront to the African American Community than the KKK, as one example [of bizarre statements].”

(again, more “crazy” focus on divisive social issues from the Dems. Apparently they really want more Kermit Gosnells in VA. Plus, how would an old white guy from Fairfax know anything about threats from the African American community?)

The Fairfax Democrat Party Apparatchik:

“We cannot allow these fanatics to take office,” Cesar del Aguila, who heads the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, said in a statement Sunday. He said Cuccinelli and the others hew to the “extreme right” on gun control, health care, immigration and women’s rights.”

(no one who supports Obama and Obamacare has any right to call anyone else a “fanatic”. You lost that right, sorry.)

Then, the inspiring and uplifting EW Jackson responded in his characteristic fashion:

“I think people always try to put that in the context of being hateful and it’s not,” he said. “It’s a particular worldview that every Christian for the most part who goes to church across this commonwealth shares: that marriage should be between one man and one woman. And anything else is an attempt to redefine an institution that really can’t be redefined. But I also like to let gay folks know that that same religious faith requires that you care about everybody, regardless. . . . It’s about religious principles, but never, ever about hatred or bigotry.”

Why is this happening?

For party hacks like the WaPo, Saslaw and Northam, the usual “extreme” labels fly. They flew at McDonnell, Bolling, and Cuccinelli in 2009 too. They didn’t stick for two reasons: 1. The ticket was not extreme, and most Virginians share their views; and 2. The Democrat ticket, and their allies in DC, were far more extreme.

Now, Aneesh Chopra is not a party hack, and I have never known him to be a negative person. He should however disavow the mean spirited, borderline racist advice of his consultants and pledge to run a clean campaign- which would accentuate his strengths and provide a real contrast with Northam’s slimy tactics.

How will this affect the general election?

You may remember in the opening days of the Obama Recession in 2009, when families were hurting like never before, how Dem nominee Creigh Deeds wanted to focus on…. Abortion? As if families could eat and be housed by abortions. He earned scorn and ridicule for that, and lost by historic margins.

Get ready for round 2.

The Dem candidates for LG and their apparatchiks in the Democrat Party of Virginia are taking the same tact again. They focus on abortion, they focus on gay rights, they focus on divisive social issues. Meanwhile, the Republican ticket focuses on jobs, liberty, and competitiveness.

Since when did liberty become so “extreme”? Since Obama and the Dems abandoned liberty at the altar of the disastrous Obamacare in 2010.

They got their holy grail, and it has destroyed the economy ever since.

EW Jackson is a man for liberty. He is uniquely strong on linking the Dem candidates to their staunch support for Obamacare.

I did not support EW on the first ballot- I backed Jeannemarie Davis. But EW has the makings of a great one, someone who can use the office to coalesce opposition to Obamacare and help free businesses to hire again. That is what liberty can do for jobs- and why I proudly back him now.

The Post began regularly endorsing candidates for president in 1976, with Jimmy Carter. The Post editorial board hasn’t endorsed a Republican for the Oval Office since, although The Post did sit out the 1988 election between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis, not endorsing either man.

My assistant and I reviewed Post endorsements going back to 1976 and found that in the vast majority of elections — federal, state, or local — The Post generally endorses Democrats.

. . .

The Post has endorsed no Republican for governor in Virginia going back as far as 1977.

Yet the ombudsman hangs his hat on a handful of GOP squish endorsements and backing GOPers in inconsequential races to refute the charges the paper has become nothing more than the print arm of the Democratic Party. Sorry, that dog doesn’t hunt. It is especially telling that on the Sunday before Election Day their editorial is aimed at Romney with such an insane headline rather than making the case for another four years for their chosen candidate based upon either his past performance or his detailed plans for the future. Since the mighty have fallen so far, we are unveiling here the new official logo for the Washington Post.

Get a load of this malarkey (to quote our ever quotable soon-to-be former Vice President.) Here are the numbers from the latest ABC / WashPo poll that gives Obama a +3 advantage over Romney nationally, 49%-46%. Just for good measure, we include both their likely and registered voters figures as well as what the numbers were in their last survey.

That’s right, they went from a D+3 LV model to a D+9 LV model in the course of two weeks. Is Dem intensity up since the first presidential debate? Not according to this poll which actually gives Romney the edge in voter enthusiasm 62% to 60% for Obama (four years ago McCain was at a pathetic 31%.)

Perhaps someone should suggest to “Weird Al” Yankovic to make a parody of the Maroon 5 song “Moves Like Jagger” and instead have it “Laughs Like Biden.” It would be perfect accompaniment for reading the Post.

It isn’t news by now that the WashPo typically ignores itself when something they’ve previously published doesn’t jive with the narrative that they’re pushing on people at the moment. At least in the past it has been the news side and editorial side or national desk vs. the local desk being in conflict. This may be a first, however, with a reporter directly contradicting her own earlier report.

Post reporter Lori Montgomery wrote a hatchet job on Paul Ryan that appears in today’s paper. Among the charges she levels is he isn’t bipartisan or willing to compromise. But how to explain this?

Working with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the Wisconsin Republican is developing a framework that would offer traditional, government-run Medicare as an option for future retirees along with a variety of private plans.

…The center formed its own debt-reduction committee, chaired by former senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and former Clinton budget director Alice Rivlin, who has also worked with Ryan on his premium support approach to Medicare.

Who wrote those words a mere 9 1/2 months ago? Why, its no other than Lori Montgomery! Oops!!!

Gee, funny that now Ryan is the VP nominee (and Ms. Montgomery’s former collaborator Shailagh Murray is now serving as VP Joe Biden’s Communications Director) the first casualty is the truth.

Silly WashPo. As much as you wish that President Obama has put Virginia away, it just isn’t so and even the president’s campaign knows that. He was in state today as well as last Friday and Joe Biden was here within the past week, too. You don’t spend time and money in a state you’ve already secured. (If you truly believe that he already has Virginia locked up, then you also probably thought Roger Simon’s POLITICO satire piece about Paul Ryan going rogue was real like some of your idiot colleagues in the press did.)

Here’s the latest evidence of that. The latest poll conducted in Virginia by Suffolk Univ. (which, by the way, has a better track record in VA than the Post based upon the 2009 election results) and just released tonight has Obama well below 50%, leading Romney within the margin of error 46%-44%. This poll was conducted Sept. 24-26 with a 4% margin of error.

Sorry guys, but there’s still a very competitive race in Virginia for the presidency.

Not even in the Democrat wave year of 2008 did Republicans drop below 33% and the rolling average for the last 3 statewide elections in Virginia pegs GOP turnout at an average of 36.3%. Republican turnout in IL and CA in 2008 was even higher than 24%.

This is the last straw and I’m going to call all these news organizations and polling companies out and suggest a drastic course of action that may very well rock them to the core.

Other than gross incompetence, the only other reason these media organizations have for putting out these polls showing Obama ahead in VA based upon partisan samples that so vastly diverge from the past 3 statewide elections or current party ID estimates is they are attempting to suppress Republican turnout so Obama can win Virginia again.

We have their numbers in print via their internals and we have the cold hard numbers from previous statewide elections. The evidence of manipulation is crystal clear and there can only be one motivation.

What happens when Republicans attempt to suppress the vote? They get sued or brought up on charges of violating the Voting Rights Act.

Don’t be surprised if a legal complaint against the WashPo, NY Times and CBS for attempted voter suppression is brought by some Virginia voters — particularly Republican minority voters. Perhaps these media organizations have forgotten, but the First Amendment isn’t absolute. I have a feeling they are about to rediscover that in a most ugly way.

They vastly oversampled Independents (most likely doing so in order to find enough “Independents” to give Obama a 47%-45% lead among them), slightly undersampled Democrats and significantly undersampled Republicans by anywhere from 9-15% (on average by 12.3%.) Look at the worst year for the GOP — 2008 when Obama was elected — and even in that year VA GOPers represented 33% of the electorate, 9% more than what the WashPo pollsters are predicting will show up this November.

How bad is this sample they used? While their Likely Voter sample gives Obama a +8 lead, their Registered Voter sample only gives him a +7 lead.

Anyone else catch the ridiculous front-page story in the Sunday Washington Post, “Transgender at Five“?

She first insisted she was a boy at the age of 2. “I am a boy” became a constant theme in struggles over clothing, bathing, swimming, eating, playing. Eventually, a psychologist diagnosed gender identity disorder. Now Tyler ‘s parents allow him to live as a boy, and the 5-year-old is reveling in his new identity.

Of course, the WashPo holds this up as a beacon of enlightened, sensitive, caring parenting. Note that the Post even refers to this girl as “him.” So much for accuracy in reporting.

First of all, psychologists are not medical doctors (those would be psychiatrists.) Let’s just dispense with that right away. My money is on this psychologist being a total quack with a diploma from some liberal college.

Next, this girl was 2 and she is still only 5. How many kids aged 2-5 go around insisting they are a dog and barking or a cat and meowing? Does the Post support “Transpecies” kids and think parents should go get their kids flea collars and let them eat out of bowls on the floor, sleep in doggy beds or use a kitty litter box? (Other kids think they are a train or a car — I don’t even think there is a “trans-” word to describe that.) Little kids are discovering who they are and play make believe. Some want to be something else and that is normal. Kids grow out of phases unless parents feed into the fantasy. Otherwise, they learn. Sometimes it takes longer than others. It seems like in this case the parents just threw up their arms and gave in — to a toddler. Exactly who is running that household? Doesn’t sound like the adults are to me.

So what if the little girl wanted to play with swords and wear pants? Have these parents (or the Post) never heard the term “tomboy”? Never mind that many girls who are “tomboys” grow up to be perfectly normal, well-adjusted women without any gender identity confusion or sexual orientation issues.

These parents — and the WashPo to a degree by extension for trying to normalize such bad parenting practices — are ruining a 5-year old girl’s life. They deserve every penny this will cost them for either the years of therapy she will have to endure or for the Addadictome operation she would need to undergo in order to physically become a man. To everyone else with kids or who will one day have kids I say this — you’re the parent, they’re the child. First and foremost, you’re their mom and dad, not their friend. You’re the adult — act like one.

They say that the real value of an investigative article is whether it exposes something as an isolated incident or a regular pattern of behavior that points to something larger.

The Washington Post’s article about Mitt Romney’s high school days does just that — it exposes a pattern of behavior.

But, the pattern isn’t Romney’s behavior. It is the Post’s.

The Washington Postpublishes a front page, above the fold 5,472 word article about Mitt Romney as a teenager in 1965 — 47 years ago — with a focus upon an allegation that he and others held a fellow classmate down and cut his hair. Just for good measure, the reporter throws out the “presumed homosexuality” of the victim by his tormentors — never mind there is no evidence that Romney or any of his classmates presumed that to be the case. (If anything, nearly 50 years ago that would have been a far removed thought from such minds and this would more likely have been a preppie vs. hippie showdown.)

The bottom line of this article is meant to portray Romney as . . . wait for it . . . a bully.

Sound at all familiar?

How many articles did the Post publish about “macaca” — a stupid, made-up word that was quickly retconned into being a “racial slur” in certain obscure places — in their attempt to portray George Allen as . . . a bully? (I still wish he had just said what he meant and called him “$#!T HEAD.”)

And then there was the little matter of the Post’s articles about Gov. Bob McDonnell’s thesis that attempted to portray him as the original warrior in the trumped up “GOP War On Women” — not just a regular bully, but one who picks on girls!

Yes, with this Romney article, a pattern has been detected. Here is what the WashPo’s modus operandi is —

STEP 1: Identify a Republican threat

STEP 2: Find some ancient story / college paper / recent gaffe of said threat

STEP 3: Go completely overkill on the inane story in an attempt to portray said threat as an anti-gay / anti-minority / anti-woman “bully”

Well, we’ve got news for you, Post. Not only are we on to your game and have your limited playbook figured out, but we’re calling you out as the biggest bully in the neighborhood. No one is afraid of you anymore. You’re a sad, pathetic joke of a newspaper that is a shallow reflection of its former glory — one that you only had because someone dropped the biggest story of the decade in the laps of your reporters.

Your electoral influence is ZERO. Just compare your Virginia endorsements to the electoral results and you’ll see what I mean.

So, keep on writing about stupid high school hi jinx. (But for heaven’s sake don’t write about any stupid things that Democrats did back in school, you can’t have that out there. /SARC) Now that Kaplan, your only corporate subsidiary that was turning a profit is being targeted for predatory practices, your well is about to go dry. You inflicted a $23 million loss for the first quarter of 2012 on your parent company and the bigger picture is even worse than that.

The Post’s newspaper division (which includes Slate) has posted losses in thirteen of the last fifteen quarters, a trail of red ink that has led to cumulative losses of $412 million over the period. Its revenue has declined in twenty of the last twenty-two quarters and last year it brought in fully one-third less—$314 million—than it did at its peak in 2006.

How much longer do you think you can keep this up? It is only a matter of time before you get cut loose.

Let’s be honest. Anyone who thinks that only 27% of registered voters in Virginia consider themselves to be Republicans is either a.) stupid; b.) high; c.) incredibly biased or d.) all of the above. Well that is exactly what the number the Washington Post used in their latest poll. To put that in context, the last time Republicans were less than 30% of the general election turnout in Virginia was when LBJ was elected in 1964. Let’s look at the last 3 statewide elections held in Virginia:

Even during the Democratic wave of 2008, GOP turnout in Illinois was 28% and in California it was 30%. Again, anyone who thinks only 27% of voters in Virginia consider themselves to be Republicans is either a.) stupid; b.) high; c.) incredibly biased or d.) all of the above. Furthermore, even within their Independent sample their appears to be some skew as well – 46% “moderate” among whom Obama leads Romney by 23%, 58% to 35%? I don’t think so…

So, what impact did the WashPo have by undersampling Republican voters by 9% and oversampling Independent liberals and labeling them as “moderates”?

They did manage to get Obama to 51% with Romney at 44%, which was probably their overall goal for this poll.

In order to get Timmy! over 50%, the GOP sample would have probably plunged into the teens and even the WashPo figured they couldn’t get away with that. (Which probably partially accounts for their flawed Independent moderate sample as well.) The fact that he is trailing Obama by 5% in his own state in a poll this skewed to favor them is a sign of incredible weakness. No wonder the DSCC has already reserved $7.4 million worth of air time for the month before Election Day in Virginia to run ads on behalf of Kaine.

Let’s adjust the Post’s findings using the above averages for party turnout. (These will still skew low because of the Post’s flawed sample within Independents who consider themselves “moderates” who responded to questions as liberals would.)

McDonnell’s approval rating – 59%.

George Allen is at 46.3% while Kaine is at 45.7% (still close, but again look to the so-called “moderates” in their Independent sample.)

Mitt Romney clocks in with 45.6% while Obama drops to 50.7%.

Unfortunately, due to the Post’s incredibly sloppy methodology in this poll, it is impossible to further adjust these numbers to more accurately reflect the Independent vote so as to remove liberals masquerading as moderates.

The take away from this poll? The WashPo is still biased and sloppy. You’re better off utilizing one of the more accurate polls such as Survey USA, VCU, Roanoke College or PPP (when they’re being honest and not trying to pump up numbers for their Dem clients.)

Democrats tried to run this so-called “Republican War on Women” before. Only then, it was them screaming “THESIS!” at the top of their lungs leading us to question whether Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds were even running in the same election. Mitt Romney is responding now as McDonnell did then and it would appear with similar positive results so far.

Meanwhile, the WashPo is going back to the abortion well once again, this time trying to tear down McDonnell amongst the right by claiming he is moderating / flip-flopping on the issue. Obviously their disdain for any Virginia Republican has turned into a dangerous derangement syndrome and there is nothing they would fear more than a Vice President McDonnell (except maybe a U.S. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.) The problem with the WashPo’s hit piece on McDonnell, obviously designed to attempt to deny McDonnell the VP slot under Romney, is that it isn’t accurate. Shaun Kenney over on Bearing Driftdeconstructs Anita Kumar’s attack on McDonnell quite well and I highly recommend you read it as I could not state the case against it better myself. (To be fair to Ms. Kumar, it almost seems to me that her heart wasn’t really in the piece and this was something that got pushed off onto her by some editor with an anti-McDonnell agenda.)

If Romney keeps laser focused on jobs (a VERY compelling reason for him to select McDonnell to join him on the ticket) while Obama tries throwing every social issue in the book at Republicans, we could see a GOP national landslide in November the likes we saw here in Virginia in 2009.

WashPo columnist Eugene Robinson, in an hysterical effort to attack Rick Santorum, is criticizing the way in which Santorum and his family chose to deal with the death of one of their children who only survived for two hours after his birth, calling them “weird” for wanting to hold their dead child and giving their other children the opportunity to see their brother and say goodbye.

10) Can a mother have time with her stillborn baby after delivery?
She absolutely can and we encourage it! Most hospitals will bathe and dress her baby and then encourage not just the mother, but also the father and other family members present at the birth to hold and caress the baby. Likewise, surviving siblings should have a chance to meet and say goodbye to their newborn brother or sister, too. Mothers who declined this chance to bond with their baby have invariably told us that they regretted the decision they made at the time. Their baby has been a part of their family life for almost a year and the need to say goodbye is very real.

Maybe Robinson has never lost anyone close to him or maybe in place of a human soul inside of him is some heartless monster. Whichever the case is, the only thing weird here is Robinson using a dead baby to attack a presidential candidate. Robinson completely misrepresented what Santorum says they did and instead makes it out to be like the Santorums brought the baby home and played with it like a doll whereas the real story is one of respect and human dignity, sorrow and loss.

In an obvious sign of desperation by both the Washington Post and the Tim Kaine for Senate campaign, they’re already bringing up “macaca”. Just take a look at the clever way they are invoking it — Timmy!’s campaign guru Mohammed Elleithee(that’s his given name, not “Mo” which makes him sound like an Irish woman using a nickname for Maureen) is saying they won’t rule out using it, which in itself is using it and giving the first-graders in the newsroom at the WashPo a chance to say one of their favorite words and giggle. (It is times like these when I wish that George Allen had said what he really meant on that August day back in 2006 — $#!T-HEAD.)

It is clear that Timmy! has nothing to run on. His record as governor was abysmal with no solid accomplishments to point to. He turned into a first-class political hack as the chairman of the DNC under President Obama often putting the concerns of Virginia as a whole on the back burner. Last, but not least, he was busted by Gov. Bob McDonnell’s audit of VDOT which found Kaine was sitting on $1 billion in money intended for road construction and maintenance at the same time he was shuttering rest areas because VDOT was supposedly broke.

Watch for Timmy! and the WashPo to engage in personal attacks and vilification while Allen runs on his record and a critique of Kaine’s. The most effective line I can think of that Allen can use against Kaine would be along these lines —

The WashPo is out with their state senate endorsements today and unsurprisingly they endorse Democrats in all but one race (they grudgingly back Jill Holtzman Vogel — just how bad must the Democrat candidate in that race be?) The endorsements are unintentionally humorous to say the least, most boiling down to the Republican candidate has “scant experience in local or state affairs” or “has had almost no involvement in local, state or community issues” or “no political experience.” I’ve got news for the Post — professional politicians are the ones who have created many of the messes we see today and voters are looking for people who have real world experience that they can bring to bear.

Of course, we all know what the truth is — the Post doesn’t like Republicans and will only endorse one where the outcome in a race is already pretty much predetermined one way or the other just so they can appear to be unbiased.

So, it should come as no surprise that the Post makes up their mind on endorsements even before they interview candidates. That’s their right to do (as we do here), however we don’t engage in the charade that they do of pretending to actually thoughtfully consider both candidates.

Some dolt at the Post actually made the mistake of sharing the truth with Jeff Frederick who proceeded to tweet this:

Contrast this to the approach taken by The Woodbridge Patch where they published candidate interviews of both Frederick and Toddy Puller. Just compare their responses to the question “Would you support an increase in the gasoline tax if it went to fixing transportation problems only? Why or why not?”

Puller —

It would depend on the amount of the increase. I believe the gasoline tax should be a percentage per gallon rather than so many cents a gallon. That way it would increase over time. I do believe that gasoline tax should be used for transportation.

Frederick —

No. People are struggling and can’t afford to pay more in taxes. And, state government has enough money. Families and small businesses have to figure out how to do more with less every day; to prioritize and make ends meet. Small businesses are faced with a constant challenge to do things better, faster, and cheaper. Part of our problem is that government continues to approach things with the same outdated methods and proposed solutions. For example, while having Metro move south is a laudable and desirable goal I support, given that it is a $3 billion project that would take at least 20 years to complete, that’s not something I view as viable. Yet, a more modern solution for transit along our major corridors is Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which looks and acts just like a Metro train, with platform stations and dedicated travel lanes (but pavement instead of tracks) costs a fraction of the cost of Metro to build and maintain, and is adaptable to changing preferences, such as a move of job centers. BRT is being used very successfully in other parts of the world. Too often government makes the process the goal – like is the goal to get Metro south, or is the goal to provide better mass transit options? I’d go with the latter, so let’s focus more on the result rather than the method. Another example, VDOT measuring their success on how many projects are on time/on budget and how many roads they build. In my small business, on time/on budget is a requirement, not an accomplishment. We should be spending our transportation dollars almost exclusively on things that reduce or eliminate congestion; and we should be measuring our success in addressing transportation on one metric: how much each taxpayer dollar going to transportation is reducing or eliminating congestion. That’s it. People don’t care how many roads are built, interchanges reconfigured, or how many buses are on the roads – all they care about are results – and in the case of transportation – the ability to get from point A to point B in a reasonable period of time.

And, the notion that we can “fix” transportation simply by raising the gas tax (or other taxes) is false and misleading. In northern Virginia, we will likely never get transportation fixed until we are able to better link transportation plans to land use planning. That is, we need to do a better job of ensuring that transportation infrastructure (as well as schools, public safety, etc. for that matter) are in place before new development. With more fuel efficient vehicles on the roads, the gas tax is a poor way to fund transportation.

That all said, having an economics degree, I think it is crazy that we have a fixed amount tax, such as the flat 17.5 cent per gallon tax on gas. It should be a percentage that grows with inflation and the economy over time. I’m not advocating a tax hike, but rather changing the current flat tax to a revenue neutral percentage that can keep pace with the economy over time.

Finally, our roads are not being funded because Richmond CHOOSES not to give us the money we need. Virginia’s budget has almost doubled in the past decade, but transportation funding has not. And after the first ever independent audit of VDOT, over $1 Billion was found in unspent funds. The money is there for transportation, but NOVA isn’t getting its fair share.

Which one of those answers is more thoughtful and comprehensive? Obviously, the WashPo isn’t concerned with such things.

President Obama has had no bigger supporter than Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank. So imagine my surprise when he writes that his President has become powerless and has virtually no idea how how to lead.

>>>“Why?” inquired Politico’s Glenn Thrush. “He’s the leader of the free world. Why isn’t he leading this process?”

That is the enduring mystery of Obama’s presidency. He delivered his statement on the economy beneath a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, but that was as close as he came to forceful leadership. He looked grim and swallowed hard and frequently as he mixed fatalism (“markets will rise and fall”) with vague, patriotic exhortations (“this is the United States of America”).

“There will always be economic factors that we can’t control,” Obama said. Maybe. But it would be nice if the president gave it a try.<<<

I am stunned that Milbank wrote this. Does Obama have ANY supporters left? It would appear not. Richard Cohen, another democrat columnist calls Obama cold and says “he doesn’t seem to care”.